Info Tabs

TOBACCO can’t have nice things. On his third album, the Pennsylvania snake-synth-charmer deepens his approach to aural depravity. Ultima II Massage widens a jagged swath through the dude’s own weird catalog, each disparate track damaged to the point of contributing to some sort of greater, lurching Frankenstein-like state. “I spent a lot of time breaking it in all the right places,” says TOBACCO. “It ends up making the whole thing breathe – sometimes gasp for air. It feels more alive.”

A great dance party is a thing of beauty, but a good soundtrack for the comedown can be just as vital. After nearly a decade on the trippy dancefloor of Soundpool, guitarist/drummer/bassist/producer John Cep and singer/bassist Kim Field set off from that New York five-piece to take respite in the warm and woozy sounds of a new shoegaze-infused project, The Stargazer Lilies.

Chicago’s analog synth melting psych-pop artist Oscillator Bug is like a force of nature in the age of climate change: unpredictable. Borrowing from the revolution-minded mass hallucinations of 60s psych as well as weirdo bedroom pop and several decades worth of avant-garde synth experimentalism, Oscillator Bug is a wild, infectious and occasionally disturbing rendering of 21st Century popular music.